Review: Syme's Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence

Rachel Syme with Illustrations from Joana Avillez. Syme’s Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence. Illustrations New York. Clarkson Potter/Publishers. 2024.  

Syme is a dynamic writer. If this book held only her text, I would have been delighted to read and reference it for years to come. The illustrations by Avillez knock this book out of the park.  Every page has colorful illustrations that reinforce the main point of the text on that particular page. This book is not only one of the most helpful books on writing that I have read in a long time, but it is the most visually engaging book I have feasted upon in years. Syme’s goal with this book is to inspire and encourage adults to take up their pens and pads of paper again and starting writing letters to be delivered through the post office. 

The Introduction to her book is an actual letter to the reader that is pulled out of an envelope. In that letter she explains how she came to start writing letters delivered via the postal system again. As a young person, she sent correspondence, but as she grew older, she found herself preferring to read letters than to write them.  The Covid-19 pandemic changed her preference. Her joy in letter writing led to her starting a pen pal organization. The excitement that she conveys by telling her story of letter writing carries throughout the book. 

The model for Syme’s Letter Writer is the 1867 Frost’s Original Letter-Writer by S. A. Frost. In her introduction, she describes memorable and appropriate to 19^th century letter samples. While Frost via Syme is amusing reading, Syme is a contemporary writer and offers contemporary suggestions about the “how, what, when, where, and why” questions that a modern adult that has not written a letter by hand in years might have.  For example, she answers the question that may be foremost on any potential letter writer’s mind, “What do I write about?” Syme provides a lengthy list of suggestions. In the course of this book, Syme takes away any excuses that prevent the reader from blessing someone else with a handheld letter that shares whatever news that one cares to share. This tactile experience of a personal letter is a rare gift in our hurry-up digital, mind-numbing, scrolling world. 

The cover of the book adds this to her title: A Guide to Modern Correspondence About (Almost) Every Imaginable Subject of Daily Life, with Odes to Desktop Ephemera, Selected Letters of Famous Writers, Epistolary Relationships, Fountain Pens, Typewriters, Stamps, Stationary, and Everything You Need to Embark Upon Adventures Through the Mail. Yep, that about covers it. 

For several years now, I have been a regular letter writer. I am often moved to write a letter to someone I know because I see something in the Newspaper (yes, a paper Newspaper with a beginning, middle, and an end) that brings him or her to remembrance. I clip the article or image out of the paper and then send it to them along with an explanatory note and some news about what is happening with me. Syme has expanded my imagination on what to include in a letter. Clippings are great, but so are other things. Did you know that you could send a teabag along with your letter? Well, you might have. I did not. There are many other interesting suggestions that await the reader. 

My favorite quote is from page 14. “There are so many reasons not to send a letter – it takes too long, it’s unreliable, it requires scrounging up a stamp and a working pen, it might result in a hand cramp, it feels antiquated and unnatural and contrived. It’s so much easier and efficient to just pick up the phone or send a text. But letters still serve a vital purpose, which is that they exist to mock the very idea of efficiency. They require slow, gear-crunching effort on both ends, for the writer and the reader (and for the many hands responsible for transporting the envelope in between the two). Letter writing is a time-consuming rebuke to a world that tries to optimize every activity into a seamless slipstream, and there is a joy to be had once you fully embrace the medium’s outdated extravagance. If you are going to put in the work to send a piece of mail, why not stuff the envelope so full of little treasures that you re-enchant the recipient to the surprising possibilities of the form?” Indeed. 

After reading Syme’s book, I did a quick search on the Internet to learn if there are other books in English that speak so excitedly about one-on-one personal correspondence via the postal service. Turns out that Rachel Syme fills a void. There are books on writing business letters, resumes, and other perfunctory tasks. There are books aimed at children, but Syme’s is the only book to offer advice for adults. Bravo to Rachel Syme! Happy reading and letter-writing!